Second Thanksgiving Abroad

I dubbed last year's Thanksgiving the most interesting ever, and it probably was - for the novelty of being away for the first time if nothing else.  I don't get any days off, just like last year, but this time I have a whole network of people with whom to celebrate the holiday.  Everyone I met at the Expat American MeetUp Group's 4th of July Party planned a feast at Bronte Beach (halfway between my home in Coogee and Bondi, along the coastal walk).

Steph, Kylie and Ben

Everyone was instructed to make a dish and I kept it simple with mashed potatoes.  It was more challenging than back home because I had to mash them by hand instead of with a mixer, but they still turned out quite normal.  I made them the night before since the party started at 6 pm.  I left work, changed clothes, heated the dish up in the microwave, and hopped a 10 minute cab ride to the beach.

There were about 40 people huddled around picnic tables draped with American flags, making it very hard to miss.  I saw Ben, Steph, Kylie, Clint, and a few others I had hung out with at Halloween and Urban Frisbee Golf.  It was nice to be around other people that were in the same situation.

There was a lot of turkey this time around. I couldn't find any in Santiago last year, so that was a good upgrade. I didn't have any pumpkin pie, but there was a graham cracker crust pumpkin cheesecake... good enough for me.  Being right on the ocean was nice as well, but dinner with the rooftop view of my Santiago apartment rivals it. When the sun went down it got a bit chilly, but as we walked down to the surf after dinner I kept telling myself... "You're in shorts on the beach and it's November. Suck it up and stop complaining."

So passes another unique Thanksgiving to remember.  I miss you all back home and hope you have a happy Thanksgiving!

The Most Interesting Thanksgiving Ever

It was no surprise that no one celebrates Thanksgiving in Chile, so I was prepared for the fact that I was going to have to work both Thursday and Friday. I did my best to stay away from all of the Facebook status updates, put my head down and work.

I spoke with Carolien, my Dutch friend I met in Santiago, early in the week. She seemed excited to put together a Thanksgiving meal since I was missing it back home and she had never experienced it before. The plan was to bring a few of her friends and some food over on Friday night and then go out afterward.

I got home from work on Friday and before I knew it there were three women cooking in my kitchen. Carolien brought a friend from Canada, who luckily was a very good cook and familiar with Thanksgiving, and another from Brazil who was also having her first Thanksgiving meal. I invited Erik, one of my Brazilian coworkers, to the party since he had told me he was interested in learning about the holiday.

Check out our Thanksgiving spread:

Once dinner was cooked, we made our way up to the 22nd floor roof of my apartment building to eat and admire the view of the high rise expanse that faded into the Andes - an American, Canadian, Dutchwoman and two Brazilians celebrating Thanksgiving in Santiago. It wasn't a traditional meal by any means, but definitely one of the most memorable holidays of my life.

After dinner we went out to a bar area in Providencia on Avenida Suecia. There are lots of Swiss-style buildings, which gave it the name. We went into one karaoke bar that gave us a free drink, and then walked around for a while. A lot of people would try to drag you into their establishment promising drink specials. We ended up going to a salsa club with a live band called Ile Habana. It had a nice vibe and was very Latin... hot and loud. I wouldn't recommend going to this area alone or in small groups as it seemed to get a little sketchy as it got later.

Next up, Valparaiso and the beach!

Working on Thanksgiving

I've had to work on Thanksgiving before (when I worked for CNN), no big deal in the grand scheme of things. It was a little depressing to look at status updates on Facebook while I worked (I guess that's not really working though). I decided to take a jog up to Cerro San Cristóbal and watch the sunset... an ok tradeoff I think.